sonicii

Thanks, I'm in Townsville, so a bit too far to call in and borrow a spare.. thanks for the offer though! according to the FSM, the MIL LED is controlled by the 'unified meter control unit' built into the speedo cluster which communicates with the ECU via the CAN system.

I didn't even notice this light wasn't working until I tried to do an idle speed adjustment this morning (after cleaning the TB over the weekend). According to the G35 user manual the 'service engine soon' light should come on for a few seconds when you turn on the ignition. mine doesn't... Can anyone else confirm this should happen? I ran through the idle adjustment procedure blindly and it seemed to work, so I am guessing it is just the light that isn't working.. possibly been disconnected for some strange reason. Will have to investigate when I get the time. Car runs great otherwise, so I hope it hasn't been disconnected by a previous owner to hide a fault. On checking the G35 FSM, it is an LED, so it can't be a 'blown bulb', and LED failures are fairly rare.

I have just used a buffer and a fine cut paint cleaner (probably similar to swirl remover) when doing it on other people's cars, it lasts years before it starts to go yellow again, and you could probably just wax it when you wax the car to help protect from UV. The fine cut cleaner works well on tail lights too. They don't normally go yellow, but they do lose their gloss finish after a while

I haven't been able to confirm this, but I have heard that there are 2 stages of 'vdc off', if you just press and release the button it turns off VDC up to 60km/h, to disable it completly you need to hold down the 'vdc off' button for a certain period (something like 6 sec). Maybe someone else can chime in to confirm? I doubt it will turn ABS off though.. I don't beleve there is any option to turn off ABS other than pulling the fuse. But I don't know if this will have any knock on effects (CEL/Limp mode).

This is incorrect. Traction control and VDC are 2 separate things. Traction control can only cut the engine power to maintain traction of the rear wheels when under heavy acceleration, it is only there to prevent wheel spin. I believe this feature is standard on all V35 skylines. Some models also have VDC (indicated by the 'VDC off' button), VDC uses steering wheel angles sensors, wheel speed sensors (same sensors as ABS uses), Yaw sensors and G sensors to determine if the car is tracking a corner correctly as per the steering wheel input. if it is not, it can apply braking to wheels independantly and can adjust engine power to correct the vehicle's track The 'VDC off' button probably turns off TC as well. for those without VDC, I am not sure if there is a way to turn off TC. You should fix the lower control arm bushes regardless, it could possibly be the cause, if it is throwing your wheel alignment out under hard cornering, it may mean you need to turn the wheel harder and that could upset the VDC system. If it doesn't fix the VDC problem, you aren't any worse off, as the bushing needs to be fixed anyway.

Check the above items.. if they are all ok, it could possible need a VDC alignment. This is an electronic procedure done by Nissan's consult, that teaches the VDC system the position of the steering wheel when you are driving straight. if this is out of alignment, the VDC system may think you are actually trying to turn sharper than the car is cornering, and thefore intervenes. This will be more noticable at high speed because less steering input is needed to lose control of the vehicle.

?? I didn't really think anyone in this thread has spread rumours or made un-substantiated claims? From what I can tell, the OP has been the harshest critic of the V35 CVT in this thread, and justifiably so, his failed on him and probably left him out of pocket quite a bit.

I think you are correct, if the manufacturer specs a fluid change at 100,000km it is highly unlikely the transmission will fail because you let to go to 106,000km. there is something else that has caused it.. component failure.. severe abuse by the previous owner.. etc.. The CVT in the maxima has no specific distance between fluid changes, but it is also not a blanket 'life of the vehicle' component either, there is a counter in the TCU that Nissan can read with their consult, once this reaches a certain figure, the fluid needs to be changed. but I have heard of several cases of Maxima owners with over 100,000km on the car and the counter is only about half way to the specified figure. But you can't really use the Maxima CVT as a comparison, the internals are very different to the V35 CVT, and it runs a different fluid.

yep.. Good advice.. Although my Wife drives our J31 Maxima with the CVT, and if I had to drive an auto, I would pick a CVT any day over a standard auto (ignoring potential repair costs), although I have to admit, I haven't driven a car with the new DSG transmission.

CVT fluid is very very different from manual transmission oil. If you put standard gear oil in a CVT you will kill it, if you put standard auto transmission fluid in a CVT, you will kill it. To make matters worse, the extroid CVT on the V35 requires its own unique CVT fluid, which I believe only Nissan can supply. so big $$. It is even different to the xtronic CVT fluid used in the Maxima/Murano. (mainly because the transmission internals are very different) There is a tin of it on ebay here . http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Nissan-Skyline-V35-350-GT-8-Transmission-oil-/220879380863?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item336d6fe17f which I think is a 4L tin.

will probably be more than just an ECU tweak. It is likely to include different intake, exhaust and cams. Imagine the price of a set of factory AMG V8 cams?...

samsung , yeah they make quite a reasonable product, up there near some of the high quality products these days. LG.. Nope.. Except perhaps when they rebadge someone else's product. Korean cars are certainly better than they were about 10 or so years ago, but still not to the extent that I would buy one, I am not sure I would be brave enough to say they could ever match the Japanese products.. Unless of course the Japanese quality takes a nose dive.

Your sig says '2003 Nissan Skyline'. What 2003 skyline isn't a V35 and runs a VQ25DET? Or do you have a Stagea too?

Isn't the stereo facia slightly shorter on the Navi unit? as the Navi screen cover is slightly larger than the pocket lid. At least that is what is claimed on G35driver. The head unit and facia I received from USA was from a Navi equiped car of the same MY and the stereo facia is definantly shorter than my non-navi unit.

And the really annoying part is it must be done by Nissan. Where as the same adjustment in the J31 Maxima can be done without Consult, using a series of switch presses and key turns. I am about to get a wheel alignment done on mine after replacing the compression rod bushings, hopefully I won't need to go to Nissan and pay them $35 to plug in a consult unit and press 'reset' in the right spot..

I would respectfully disagree, the VQ specifies much more than '6 cylinders', it is the series of engine, and I would argue that the VQ35 shares many similarities to the VQ40, VQ30, VQ25 and VQ20, in the same way the RB series of engines are all quite similar, there are a lot of relativly minor changes in the life of the VQ, turbo chargers, variable valve timing, direct injection, different bore/stroke/piston sizes (and therefore capacities), external changes to suit vehicle mounting positions, etc. Any major changes to the design of the engine would result in a different series name, for example, the VR engines used in the GT-R are based on the VQ, but due to the number of changes, they specified a new series. The same thing occured in the early 1990s with the VG engine, Nissan produced the VE engine for the USA J30 Maxima, it was essentially a VG block with a chain driven twin cam head specifically built to fit in the Maxima, but because the difference were significant, they re-labled it a VE. If the VQ35DE was an all new design/build, it would not carry the VQ series label.

no worries, probably worth noting the stereo facia is a different size between the navi and non-navi too.

thanks.. So Renault started using Nissan's VQ engine in 2002.

You mean one of these? http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Nissan-300GT-V35-Roof-Light-Sunglasses-Holder-/170719649875?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item27bfaf2053

If you can get them apart, and they are all the same size/shape, then it should be fine.

?? I don't really see the relavence? The 350Z/350GT motor 'could' have been built by anyone, but the fact Nissan and only Nissan were using the VQ long before their connection with Renault, and Renault only started using the VQ in the last 5 years or so, suggests the chances that Renault built/designed it, are fairly slim.

Traction control and VDC are 2 different things, although a lot of people confuse the 2 terms.

^^ I have heard that before too, but I can't really see how it can be true, Nissan stated using the VQ engine back in the mid 1990s, long before there was any collaboration with Renault. and Renault only stated using the VQ in their cars in the mid 2000s, and well after Nissan starting using the VQ35 in their cars. I think this is just a rumour that Jeremy Clarkson has spread..

To do it properly, you would need to replace the refelctor with one made for a RHD car, as the reflector is responsible for creating the light pattern. The only one I have heard of being modified was a projector type lamp. I don't know how they did it, but I assume there must have been an extra 'add on' piece in the reflector to create the 'kick up' pattern, and they just removed that. I don't think it would be possible to adjust the existing reflector on a standard headlight setup. Also, I doubt it would be possible to just adjust the headlights so they point lower and not blind oncoming drivings, as they would need to be so low that they would be next to useless, assuming the adjustments could even go far enough.

^ what he said. RHD headlight low beam light pattern kicks up on the left to light the left side of the road, if you aren't sure what I mean, park your car about 10m from a wall at night and turn on your headlights. LHD headlight light pattern kicks up on the right, if you fit them to a RHD car it will shine straight into the face of oncoming drivers. I have heard of some people modifying headlights to remove the 'kick up', so the light cutoff is just a straight line. But I have no idea if this is possible on these headlights.